Re: who would be the urdu poet of the century?
You heard it right..and without giving anyone a feeling of name dropping, let me take you for a bit on my Dad’s background–that relates to him ancestorily.
My father Jamiluddin Aali is the son of Nawab Sir Amiruddin Ahmed Khan of the State of Loharu..at Rajhastan, India..about 3.5 hours drive towards west of Dehli. My grand father married thrice. The first lady was my father’s mom.
My great great grandpa..Nawab Ahmed Bakhsh Khan’s sister Umrao Begum was married to Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib. She didn’t bore him any sibling hence they adopted Arif.
My grandfather’s father Nawab Allaudin Khan Alai was a great fan of Ghalib..and it is on records at Kutub Khana-e-Khaas of Dehli that Alai wrote to Ghalib saying “Aap Mere Dada Hein” and Ghalib wrote back “Mian Mein Tumhara Dada nahin…DIL Dada houn” and at Alai’s request, Ghalib wrote the famous ghazal…which was sung by Noor Jehan even.. “MEIN HOUN MUSHTAQ-E-JAFFA, MUJHE SE JAFFA AUR SAHEE…” and at one point the verse says “MUJHE SE GHALIB…ALAI NE GHAZAL LIKHWAIEE…”
Interesting many years back, my father was invited at Dehli for a mushaira BA YAAD E GHALIB and my dad couldnt make it…however, he did send some verses–which Kunwar Mehendre Singh Bedi recited before a packed audience of 100k enthusiasts…and the end verse of Dad’s poetry was “MUJHE SE GHALIB, ALAI NE SAU BARAS BAAD GHAZAL LIKHWAIEE…”
**More interestingly, when Ghalib’s 100th death anniversary came..the PTV produced a play written by Aliya Imam Saheba titled “MEIN KAUN HOUN AIE HUM NAFASON” in which Kunwar Aftab Ahmed chose me to play the part of Allaudin Khan Alai and the wonder of it all…I wore the actual family cap—of Ghalib days—from my Dad’s collection. If I would remember it correctly–I think it was in 1968-69 the play was produced.
When Naseeruddin Shah visited Pakistan for stage recital of the wonder play “TUMHARI AMRITA” with Shabana Azmi in Karachi in 2006…he requested for calling on my Dad…and they both came—as Kaifi Azmi is a great friend of my Dad…and Naseer particularly talked about Ghalib with my Dad…whowas pretty annoyed with the Indian movie GHALIB as some important facts were left out…
Speaking of poets I have met…its a long list and I’ll surely scribe some very interesting discussions and exchanges I had the opportunity to have with greats like FAIZ, QASMI, INSHA, JOSH, EHSAN DANISH, NASIR KAZMI, BASHIR BADAR, BEIKAL USTAHI, PIRZADA QASIM, SALEEM AHMED, ATHAR NAFEES, QUDRATULLAH SHAHAB…the list goes on…!!
Khush Rahein…
-Raju Jamil